By: Damian Okonkwo
The Federal Government of Nigeria is currently set to add taxations for Cryptocurrency transactions and other digital assets dealings within the country in the Finance Bill for 2022 currently under construction by the ministry of finance.
This bill will be expected to extend taxations to all sectors of the economy including capitals gains from digital assets Gaming business, lottery, Cable Undertakings and Cryptocurrency trading.
This bill also contains an amendment to the taxable assets to now include all forms of properties including the digital assets, contrary to the old law that excluded these assets previously. Hence, the new bill states that:
“All forms of property shall be assets for this act, whether situated in Nigeria or not, including options, debts, digital assets, and incorporeal property generally.”
The recent development was announced after the virtual meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) held last week's Thursday. Here, the Senior Special Assistant to the President revealed that these developments were part of the discussions held during the NEC meeting which was presided over by Vice President Prof. Yemi Osibanjo.
Speaking further on this, the Finance minister - Zainab Ahmed reported that the proposed bill titled Finance Bill 2022, will anchor on five fundamental policies such as: Climate change, Tax Equity, Job creation/Economic growth, Revenue Generation/Tax Administration, and Tax Incentives reform.
She therefore explained that, the bill looks to amend relevant taxes for all sectors and excise duty statuses to be in line with the macroeconomic policy reforms currently undertaken by the Federal government.
With this new law put in place, all sectors of the economy will be brought under the tax net including capital gains from digital assets such as cryptocurrencies.